> what will replace the media as an arbiter of independent information and truth

Lament of the Catholic Church during the Reformation: Who will replace the Church as the arbiter of truth.

Maybe it is best that we not have people and institutions that claim to be the “arbiter of truth.”

Anything that gives power to the people is messy. Democracy is messy and the elite wondered how people would be able to rule themselves without an absolute monarch telling them what to do. Now we have the journalistic elite wondering how the people will be able to figure out truth without the journalist high priesthood telling them what truth is.